New York, NY OPEN Impact Real Estate LLC (OPEN) represented The Door, whose mission is to empower young people to reach their potential by providing comprehensive youth development services, in an 18,000 s/f lease at 2999 Third Ave. Lindsay Ornstein and Stephen Powers, founders of OPEN, and Arthur Skelskie, Alexander Smith and Ginny Durfee of Transwestern Real Estate Services represented The Door in the transaction.

The Door will consolidate two current Bronx offices into its new location, helping to improve access to the organization’s wide range of programs and services, such as counseling, college advisement and tutoring, youth services, and employment and education programming. The Door will occupy three floors within the four-story building, which also has ground floor retail.

Building ownership, Chestnut Holdings, recently gutted the second through fourth floors and is completely renovating the space to meet The Door’s needs. The design features exposed brick and plentiful windows, creating a bright, open atmosphere. The space will have eight classrooms, plus several larger meeting rooms and seating for approximately 65 staffers, including 10 private offices. The Bronx hub is expected to open this summer. 

“Consolidating our Bronx offices will help us to improve efficiencies and enable us to better reach the area’s youth with the critical services The Door provides,” said Kelsey Louie, CEO of The Door. “The new location will feature a design that is similar to our main Manhattan location, which creates an environment that best supports our work. Our new hub is a fitting way for The Door to celebrate its 50th anniversary.”

The Door will benefit from a dedicated entrance and elevator to its new offices, creating a “building-within-a-building.” The 10-year lease includes rights to construct a roof deck approximately 5,000 square feet in size, as well as three adjacent parking spots, which could be transformed into an outdoor lounge area. The location offers easy access to public transportation with the 2 and 5 Trains, as well as numerous bus lines.

“The Door is making positive, life-long changes in the lives of the youth it serves,” said Skelskie. “The Door’s drive to make a difference in the community was reflected in the fact that, like many of the nonprofit organizations we work with, they maintained a forward-looking mentality during the pandemic. Rather than hunker down and sign a one-year lease, their executive committee kept to their long-term vision for the organization.”

Chestnut Holdings was represented internally in the transaction.